How To Study in Medical School
This blog post is been a long time coming. I never wanted to post tips on how to study, mostly because I didn't feel confident in my study methods! I saw a drastic difference in my grades comparing my first two years of medical school. First year I was barely passing every test. During my second year of medical school, I realized I scored above average on almost all of my tests. I passed AND met my goal for the notorious STEP 1 exam. Feeling comfortable in my 3rd year of medical school, I finally feel like I have my study routine down after trying literally everything.
I reference medical school a lot and specific tips for medical students, but if you are a premed or in any other program, know this can also apply to you! There's no better person to learn how to study! Us medical students pretty much got this down!
Things I don't address below have to do with study environments. This post is focused on the grimacing details of how to study, not all the extra stuff. I love to study at coffee shops and be around people, so I do that. If you like being in a quiet corner in the bottom floor of the library, stick to that. Whatever environment you need, that will stay the same in medical school.
Okay, lets get started.
#1 Questions, questions, questions. I wanted to put this first because this is THE most important thing out of everything I recommend. PERIODT. Even if you don't "feel ready". Even if you just want to review for one more week. Even if you are getting 20% on your question sets. Just do it. And when all else fails, and you are having a difficult time getting good scores on your exams, go back to this #1. Use questions from popular question banks that are known to be good practice. For example, Uworld is an excellent question bank for medical students. Practicing 50-100 questions a day is a great way to study for step 1 during second year.
#2 Look at your highest scoring exam--> focus on that study method
Are you one of those people who feels like they have tried every type of study method? From flashcards, to creating study guides? And you still don’t feel like anything works?
I went through the same thing as a first year. After a while, I was getting frustrated with the thought that nothing was working. What helped me decide my study method was looking at my scores. If all else fails, let your scores speak for themselves. Even if I saw 5% increase in my score, that is proof that something was working for that test.
If I had 3 tests, 68%, 72%, 65%, pick the 72% test and work on improving that study method. I know, it's not that drastic 20+ increase you were hoping for. Instead of trying another new method, pick the 72% test, and work on improving that specific study method. I did this during my first semester while taking anatomy and histology.
The test that I scored a 65% I tried to use flashcards as my main study method.
My 68% test was creating study guides (100 page long study guides LOLZ).
My 72% test was reviewing scribe notes/power points.
So, I cancelled the flashcards, cancelled the study guides, and worked on being more efficient with PowerPoint review and scribe notes.
#3 Flash cards
IF YOU KNOW making flashcards work for you, skip this tip and go to #4.
I am one of those people who never liked flashcards. Once I made them, I would loose about 10. It would take me all day to make flashcards. And what I actually wrote on the flashcards were far from helpful. And my hand writing would look like chicken scratch after about the 100th card.
After I discovered premade decks on Anki, I started to see how helpful they were! All my problems were solved. For my med and premed students, here is a link of decks that I used religiously once I discovered them. I would do anki for about 20 min/day. Try to incorporate in your morning and/or night routine. I would even use it while waiting in really long lines at Ikea, when I was bored at a party, etc. Yup, I'm that person.
Med students: https://www.medschoolanki.com
Premeds:https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/mcat
#4 "Learning Phase"- 50%
I really want to stress that sticking to the lectures is extremely important. In medical school, you have so many resources you can choose from. If you are going to a lecture based curriculum, they are going to be testing you on that material. More often than not, the things in lecture will be more challenging than what’s in the board review resources, so if you purely focus on board material, you will be coming up short on your exams, and your score will reveal it. Don't just rely on board material if you are trying to score above average on all your tests.
So how did I study for lectures?
Whether you are a "lecture goer" or a "streamer", this method after a year of revisions and fine tuning, has gotten me consistently above average grades:
Use scribe notes from previous year and go through the notes once before going to lecture
Listen once (either in person or streaming)
Use new scribe notes to either copy paste the scribe notes or summarize the main points to each slide (on the side) using OneNote (see pictures at end for how I organized my notes on OneNote, which I recommend for medical school, it keeps everything organized and holds a lot of data)
Review each lesson powerpoint with added text on the side 3-5 times before your test. The first time you go through each powerpoint, it will take you around an hour to review, but each time you review, it will go faster. You will start to remember the pictures/ notes--> should cut down to 20-30 min/ review.
Repetition is key. If you keep on practicing, you should be able to review 3-4 lectures per night/ and 20-25 lectures on the weekends (10-12/day)
If you have the time… listen to the lecture once again before taking the test (can speed up to 1.5x-2x speed)
Med student specific:
Watch ALL the pathoma videos for organ system pathology
Watch board and beyond to elaborate on concepts that pathoma didn’t touch on. No need to try to complete all of the boards and beyond videos because they are soooo many videos, so if you can’t finish them all, issss okay boo. But you can certainly try! I was always able to finish all the boards and beyond videos.
#5 "Question Phase" - 50%
You should only be learning 50% of the time. I know…sounds crazy right? How on earth can you only use 50% of your time to learn? I felt like I still didn't know anything even with all the reviewing because once I was done reviewing one lecture, I had 3-5 new lectures to learn! I was trying to keep up with the material and watch all the online videos. And I'm supposed to review each lecture 3-5 times before the test?? Huh?
Well, because no matter how much you "learn" it will NOT translate to the test. You have to at some point, stop learning/ reviewing lectures, and put your knowledge to the test. So my method is, 50% learning, 50% questions.
Let me make this more clear, because this is probably what a lot of people do poorly with…and if you could get this down, you will start to see improvements in your score. I cannot stress this enough.
Example: Let’s say you have 1 month to study for a test. School days you are probably getting 3-5 lectures/day on that material, so you have about 60-100 lectures to learn and master in 1 month. And every lecture is upwards from 30 slides/powerpoint. Whewww chileee. I know. The reality of medical school.
When people said medical school was like drinking water from a fire hydrant, they weren't lying.
But we can get it down y'all, follow me. Let's get that above average score!
The first two weeks, you are doing the "learning phase" that I described above.
The last two weeks, you are doing questions! 50-100 questions/day! Whatever resource that is recommended to use practice problems for, you need to use them. Try to go through as many questions as possible during these next two weeks.
The last weekend before your exam, you should be doing 80% questions, and 20% referring to lecture notes, videos from online ie Boards and Beyond, Pathoma, YouTube, to solidify concepts from questions that you keep on getting wrong.
#6. Textbooks- issa no for me dawg!
Textbooks are really useful if you don't understand things from your lecture, or you want more details on a few concepts. I would highly suggest not using textbooks as your primary learning source. Use the lectures, use videos as your primary learning source, and only use textbooks as supplement. Only go to the textbooks if you truly do not understand a concept. Textbooks can take you from a 85%—> 95%, not a fail—> 95%. So if you are struggling with passing tests, the answer is NOT to start reading more from textbooks. The answer is to do more questions.
#7 Practice tests
Very important, if you have access to them, do them. A lot of medical schools will give you access to older exams. No, it's not cheating. They are available to help you figure out how these concepts have been tested in the past. If it’s the same teacher writing the tests, you will want to see how that professor asks questions. I did at least one old practice exam each testing cycle to help me get ready for game day. I would be happy to see one or two questions that I recognized from previous tests, so that always helps! Same with the big board exams. The best way to practice for the USMLE Steps and NBME's are using practice NBME's and UWORLD exams.
#8 Mnemonics
Make your own mnemonics and/or grab common mnemonics online to the things you can never remember, make a list, review everyday. I still have mnemonics that I will never forget from a quick google search!
So, long, to, pinky, here, comes, the thumb!
#9 Overcoming Test Anxiety
If you suffer from test anxiety and you start to have signs of a panic attack during your test, try this method. You have to reground yourself, and taking 5-7 minutes to do this will be a sacrifice that will help you finish your test strongly.
I suggest leaving the testing room, because doing this in front of peers might give you more anxiety. If you don't have that option, you can totally do it in your chair. Go to the bathroom or hallway, sit down and close your eyes. Breathe for 60 seconds. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold it for 2 seconds, release for 4-5 seconds.
After breathing, open your eyes slowly and start this exercise:
Name (in your head) five things that you see (I see the door in front of me, I see my hands resting on my legs)
Name four things you can feel (I feel my feet being supported by the floor, I feel the air conditioning on my body)
Name three things you can hear (I hear someone typing, I hear a door opening)
Name two things you can taste (I can taste the gum in my mouth)
Name one things you can smell (I smell the perfume on my body, or the shitty smell of this bathroom, lolz)
After listing these things in your head, close your eyes and go back to your breaths. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold it for 2 seconds, release for 4-5 seconds.
You should feel grounded back in reality. Not taken away from sympathetic nerve simulation response to sitting in front of an exam. If you can walk back into that exam room feeling ready, then go back. It's helped me many of times. Before I open my computer to start testing again, I take 3 big deep breaths and I go back in there.
If you haven't recovered and you start to realize you are going into a full on panic attack, go to the testing proctor or health services.
#10 Special resources:
If you are in medical school, the courses I would only slightly deviate from this "method" is classes like microbiology and pharmacology. Those courses are so hard they get special consideration. You need… and I repeat… you NEED SKETCHY MICRO AND SKETCHY PHARMACOLOGY. I am yelling at you for a reason.
I am a hard headed person, so when I first heard about this sketchy thing, I was automatically in defense, for no reason at all. I'm not one to read comics in general, so I automatically assumed that sketchy would not be helpful for me. My first few tests of antibiotics and bacteria, I was able to barely pass. 67%-77% were my ranges. I wasn't comfortable with those scores, so I decided to give sketchy a try. BRUH. Automatic 90% on both tests.
Face palm.
Just do it. Even if you are hardheaded like me, try using sketchy microbiology and pharm for your first two tests. If you are not scoring the way you want to, then you can try other methods, but I would recommend using their platform first before exploring others.
I found my system that works for me, and I am sharing it with you. Some say you will change your study method when you are in medical school because there is sooo much information. How you studied in undergrad is not going to be helpful in grad school. Slightly true. My study methods mostly stayed the same. I was just much more efficient in organizing and incorporating a lot more questions in my study routine.
I hope these help! I really tried to give detailed descriptions of each tip, and elaborate on why I suggest these methods. Overall, 50% learning, 50% questions. Congrats future doctors! You will be great!
These are some screenshots of my OneNote from Microsoft, how I organized my lectures. I would upload the powerpoint and on the side write all my notes, and edit the powerpoint with arrows and color coordination to make things easier to study. Hope these examples help!
